Most wireless networks (such as wireless local area networks or WLANs), rely on infrastructure components that establish data communication links with mobile devices. A mobile device communicates, via a wireless data communication channel, with a wireless access device (such as an access point or access port device), which in turn communicates with other network components via traditional wired interfaces. These wireless access devices generally communicate with the mobile devices using one or more RF channels (e.g., in accordance with one or more of the IEEE 802.11 standards).
Often, it is desirable to balance the load created by the various mobile devices among the access devices in the wireless network. Some existing techniques use proprietary protocols and/or predefined load criteria, and thus are limited in application to devices, systems, and/or networks compatible with these proprietary protocols or predefined load criteria. These proprietary methods are often inadequate or ineffective, as in most wireless networks, there will be numerous different brands or types of access devices and mobile devices from various manufacturers or vendors.
Additionally, some techniques utilize load advertising in beacons and probe responses, which provides load information from the access devices to a mobile device. The mobile device then determines which access device to connect to for purposes of load balancing, as opposed to the wireless network infrastructure. Thus, the ability of a system designer and/or network administrator to balance the load among access devices is largely dependent on the mobile devices in the wireless network. Furthermore, the administrator of the wireless network is limited in the ability to define or modify the criteria used to balance the load.